The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University announced the BanglaShield team from Oxford University as the winner of the 15th annual Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge. This global competition encourages graduate students to develop financial solutions dealing with social and environmental issues.
The victorious team, selected from 12 finalists, proposed providing affordable flood resilience financing for low-income households in Bangladesh by combining concessional loans and parametric insurance. The team members were Harry Breidahl, Achyut Gautam, Sachi Jain, and Phetogo Mogotsi, and they won a prize of $10,000.
Jessica Alsford, Morgan Stanley’s Chief Sustainability Officer, stated, “The Sustainable Investing Challenge showcases the creativity and innovation of the next generation of sustainable finance leaders...which demonstrate the potential of financial solutions to drive real, lasting impact across industries and communities.”
The challenge involved a variety of presentations addressing global social and environmental issues, from New Zealand's aviation transition to Nigeria's farmer losses reduction. The second-place prize was awarded to the Sustainable Agri-aqua Investment Fund team from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, which focused on groundwater depletion in Punjab, winning $5,000. The Pharaoh Brick Fund from York University’s Schulich School of Business came third, presenting a proposal to create low-carbon bricks from Egyptian waste, winning $2,500.
Dave Chen, Professor of Finance at Kellogg Management School, commented, “Each year, this competition reaffirms what we already know—the talent, drive and fresh thinking of today’s graduate students will be the key to tackling our most challenging global problems.”
Finalists were selected by a panel of experts in sustainable finance and pitched their ideas at Morgan Stanley in London on April 25, 2025.
For more information on this year’s teams and their projects, visit the official competition webpage.
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